Crab

You can thank the ambition of Tony De La Cruz for the mounds of food you get when you eat at Delmonico's Seafood Grille in Encino these days. De La Cruz became owner of the restaurant in May, and his long-term expansion plans call for him to win the loyalty of his customers with tons and tons of food. As Robert Monheim, De La Cruz's gregarious general manager, puts it, if you like seafood, you don't leave Delmonico's hungry. "This guy trained in France 23 years ago, and he was executive chef for a hotel chain with 140 chefs under him," says Monheim.

Really, River's End is a bit of heaven, where the beautiful Russian River meets the sea and the Sonoma coast in big rocks and crashing waves. A gourmet restaurant with drop-dead views is perched above the placid estuary of the river, separated by a sandy bar from the wild ocean beyond. After dinner, I had to walk only a few steps downhill to a knotty-wood cabin with a soft bed and a picture window instead of a TV. I stayed just one night, which cost me about $250 for dinner ($85) and the cabin ($162)

Mark Aspinwall's article on the Olympic Peninsula in the Aug. 23 issue was excellent. There is no question that the prime entry for an introductory hike to the Olympic Mountains is the Dosewallips River. Further, the Hoh rain forest is gorgeous and a once-in-a-lifetime experience. People combining the two or otherwise going around the north side of the peninsula can heighten their enjoyment in two ways. From Port Angeles there is a clearly marked road to Hurricane Ridge, a short and scenic side trip which gives a glorious view of the Olympics as an entity.

The Food of Portugal by Jean Anderson (William Morrow: $24.95, 304 pp., illustrated). The book promises interesting reading about a cuisine that's supposedly "lusty," as Jean Anderson puts it, yet relatively unknown to Americans. The author first traveled to Portugal in the early 1960s and has since made more than 50 return trips, poking about country kitchens, lifting lids of cooking pots and prowling markets. The 37 color photographs of food, people and places are quite impressive, taken by the author, a free-lance photojournalist.

Mount Eden Vineyards Estate Chardonnay is consistently one of the finest from California. But this one from the winery's Saratoga line — designed to showcase the Santa Cruz Mountain terroir — is a real find at this price. The fruit is right there in the first sip. Light on the oak, the 2007 Saratoga Chardonnay carries a gentle lilt of citrus and a touch of anise. Like its big brother, it is Burgundian in style, grace in a glass. Bring it to a dinner party as a ringer: It could be mistaken for a very expensive bottle.

This year I had one of my best Christmas Eve dinners ever. Maybe it's because it unfolded in such a leisurely fashion--a little eating, a little dancing and listening to music, a little nibbling, a little conversation. And repeat. Watching the sunset, admiring the ring around the moon. We started about 4 p.m., shucking five dozen kumamoto oysters and watching the light fade over the horizon as we sipped a 1996 Fleury Champagne followed by a 2004 Muscadet. Bruschetta was involved too, lavished with olive oil, ricotta cheese and fresh roasted red bell peppers.

If you like to be part of an exclusive crowd when it comes to dining out, you might be interested in the launch of an elite little four-seat raw bar called Cru Bar at Acabar in Hollywood. Acabar opened in July and has been developing buzz for its vibrant bar scene as well as its eclectic cooking courtesy of lauded chef Octavio Becerra, who created a menu that explores food from the "spice trail": Southeast Asia, India, Lebanon and Northwest Africa. With Cru Bar, Becerra is focusing his attention on creating an omakase tasting menu that he calls "Ob Kase.

Just off the crowded sidewalks of Colorado Boulevard in Pasadena's Old Town is another block-long restaurant row on North Raymond Avenue. The oldest residents are the formerly French, now nuevo Cubano Xiomara and the modern Chinese bistro Yujean Kang's, with Cafe Bizou carrying the banner for budget French on the far corner. Nonya has just joined the lineup.